1. Home
  2. Learning and Teaching: From Theory to Practice [EDU6231]

School: Education

This unit information may be updated and amended immediately prior to semester. To ensure you have the correct outline, please check it again at the beginning of semester.

  • Unit Title

    Learning and Teaching: From Theory to Practice

  • Unit Code

    EDU6231

  • Year

    2025

  • Enrolment Period

    1

  • Version

    2

  • Credit Points

    10

  • Full Year Unit

     N

  • Mode of Delivery

    On Campus
    Online

  • Unit Coordinator

    Dr Sarah JEFFERSON

Description

This unit provides beginning teachers with the learning theory and practice required to be an effective teacher. A wide range of perspectives are presented, including behaviourism, social constructivism, cognitive and social theories of learning. The unit teaches students how effective teachers plan and implement productive learning events, including ways in which to motivate students, develop questioning skills, and increase memory retention. Practical strategies are also taught and experienced in this unit, including cooperative learning, explicit teaching and concept attainment. Through an active learning approach the unit aims to develop the prospective teachers' skills as facilitators and decision-makers in the teaching learning process. As no student or class is the same, students in this unit learn to be critical thinkers, with the ability to select theories and strategies that best fit the learning goal and their context.

Equivalent Rule

Replaces EDU4231

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit students should be able to:

  1. Investigate the teaching learning processes through the critical models presented and make decisions about the teaching learning process based on these models, including planning lessons appropriate to the level, content, and type of material taught.
  2. Evaluate theoretical perspectives of and develop skills in the facilitation of the teaching - learning process, including gaining and maintaining students' interest, questioning, explaining and the use of feedback and reinforcement.
  3. Apply basic concepts of and approaches to the motivation of students to enhance learning and select and use different teaching and learning strategies appropriate to the content, students and learning environment.
  4. Discuss a number of alternative approaches to learning, including cognitive, behavioural and social learning, relate them to theoretical principles and use them in the classroom situation.
  5. Defend the belief that learning is a constructivist and developmental process whereby the acquisition of subject matter and content knowledge is essential.

Unit Content

  1. An introduction to the teaching-learning process with emphasis on teaching-learning theories and lesson design and the decisions that the teacher will make with respect to these theories.
  2. Practical learning skills related to lesson preparation and presentation including specification of learning objectives, teacher-pupil contact, effective communication, beginning and concluding learning experiences, variability, questioning, explaining, selecting and using resources.
  3. An introduction to learning theories including cognitive, behavioural and social learning and a study of teaching strategies which reflect these theories.
  4. An introduction to cooperative learning, explicit instruction and concept attainment.
  5. An overview of motivation theory, memory acquisition, and metacognitive skills that promote learning.

Learning Experience

ON-CAMPUS

Students will attend on campus classes as well as engage in learning activities through ECU's LMS

JoondalupMount LawleySouth West (Bunbury)
Semester 111 x 1 hour lecture11 x 1 hour lectureNot Offered
Semester 111 x 2 hour tutorial11 x 2 hour tutorialNot Offered
Semester 2Not Offered10 x 3 hour seminarNot Offered

For more information see the Semester Timetable

ONLINE

Students will engage in learning experiences via ECU’s LMS as well as additional ECU learning technologies

Additional Learning Experience Information

Lectures, workshops and micro-teaching.

Assessment

GS1 GRADING SCHEMA 1 Used for standard coursework units

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant School Progression Panel.

ON CAMPUS
TypeDescriptionValue
EssayEssay on Learning Theory60%
AssignmentLesson Plan with Critical Rationale40%
ONLINE
TypeDescriptionValue
EssayEssay on Learning Theory60%
AssignmentLesson Plan with Critical Rationale40%

Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005)

For the purposes of considering a request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005), inherent requirements for this subject are articulated in the Unit Description, Learning Outcomes and Assessment Requirements of this entry. The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the support for students with disabilities or medical conditions can be found at the Access and Inclusion website.

Assessment

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. Informal vivas may be conducted as part of an assessment task, where staff require further information to confirm the learning outcomes have been met. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant School Progression Panel.

Academic Integrity

Integrity is a core value at Edith Cowan University, and it is expected that ECU students complete their assessment tasks honestly and with acknowledgement of other people's work as well as any generative artificial intelligence tools that may have been used. This means that assessment tasks must be completed individually (unless it is an authorised group assessment task) and any sources used must be referenced.

Breaches of academic integrity can include:

Plagiarism

Copying the words, ideas or creative works of other people or generative artificial intelligence tools, without referencing in accordance with stated University requirements. Students need to seek approval from the Unit Coordinator within the first week of study if they intend to use some of their previous work in an assessment task (self-plagiarism).

Unauthorised collaboration (collusion)

Working with other students and submitting the same or substantially similar work or portions of work when an individual submission was required. This includes students knowingly providing others with copies of their own work to use in the same or similar assessment task(s).

Contract cheating

Organising a friend, a family member, another student or an external person or organisation (e.g. through an online website) to complete or substantially edit or refine part or all of an assessment task(s) on their behalf.

Cheating in an exam

Using or having access to unauthorised materials in an exam or test.

Serious outcomes may be imposed if a student is found to have committed one of these breaches, up to and including expulsion from the University for repeated or serious acts.

ECU's policies and more information about academic integrity can be found on the student academic integrity website.

All commencing ECU students are required to complete the Academic Integrity Module.

Assessment Extension

In some circumstances, Students may apply to their Unit Coordinator to extend the due date of their Assessment Task(s) in accordance with ECU's Assessment, Examination and Moderation Procedures - for more information visit https://askus2.ecu.edu.au/s/article/000001386.

Special Consideration

Students may apply for Special Consideration in respect of a final unit grade, where their achievement was affected by Exceptional Circumstances as set out in the Assessment, Examination and Moderation Procedures - for more information visit https://askus2.ecu.edu.au/s/article/000003318.

EDU6231|2|1